STAND YOUR GROUND

Showing an ID to vote is not racist. It isn't suppression. To think so is heartbreakingly foolish.

Fully auditing a highly contested, auditable election is thee only right thing to do.

Holding our rigged two-tier justice system to account is foundational.

Standing in the face of medical and tech tyranny is the moral high ground.

It’s time to take a stand for sensibility, for liberty. And while some foolhardy people will call evil good and good evil, they don’t get to establish their foolishness into our law & culture without consequence, without resolve, without going through us. This hallowed ground is ours. And their foolish nonsense doesn't get another inch of it.

The days are coming when we will have to stand with a resolve that costs us something, or we will certainly shame those whose testimony to modernity was that it cost them everything. 

At this moment in time, it is well and far beyond just our choice to take a stand. It is our God-blessed charge and duty. If we don’t toughen up now, the years to come will certainly do it for us or chew us up. Chew us up with our weakened will whose only obligation was to pay forward this great gift of inherited civility. 

What I am here to tell you today is that it is time to HOLD. Give no more ground! I am not specifically saying it is time to take back the ground in areas where goodness has lost. I am saying with firm certainty that it is time to give no further ground. Ground that has been sacrificed for more than a lifetime of study could even begin to fully understand.

We must make up our mind that what they come for next isn’t on the table. It’s non-negotiable. It is not up for discussion.

Make no mistake, their will to control and dominate by force and this insatiable cancel culture isn’t finished. They will find yet another fancy excuse to take yet another civil liberty. There will be another inalienable right they don't trust us with any longer. Their foolish lust for power should be met with the resolve of those encircled at Bastogne, it must be met with the defiant spirit of the Alamo, and it has to be met with firm certitude and final resolve of those who against all odds held through the night though the red glare of bomb and rocket. And it is in reflection of their and countless others’ sacrifice that we must batten down and here-forward determine that irrespective of if the line holds, we will be counted among those who do.

The object of their desire and ground they want is our home, and like at the Apache stronghold, we must refuse to be removed from our land. These rights, this hallowed ground was bought at a price, and those that paid that price deserve the deference of our firmly anchored resolve. 

This post isn’t for those who need convincing of the broken state of affairs we find ourselves in. It is for those who feel too small to do anything about it. It is for those who understand that taking a stand will cost something. It could cost a job, a friendship, or a five-year plan. It is for those who feel that the cost outweighs the benefit. It is for those who feel that with every stand they take, they might lose the ability to do something more impactful in the feature. It is for those who are holding back in order to find a better, more wise time to take a stand. Every thinking person fears that they too might play the fool, and indeed it is for us to thoughtfully consider our efforts.

But I ask you, if not now, when?

Our “betters” are telling us that it is wrong to identify someone before they choose the most powerful person in the world. Oh, they want a background check before you give a gun to your son, but are ok if we don't even know who is putting someone in charge of the greatest gun in the history of the world, the US military. If that isn’t the apex and highest axiom of double standards I don’t know what is. If we do nothing now, we lose; if we lose now, we lose for a long time. It doesn't take much to stand. It takes speaking up. It takes owning your position publicly. It takes participation in our broader conversation. It takes action. It takes courage. 

For me, any request for further ground will rend one response:

N U T S !

(For reference, google: Gen. McAuliffe at Bastogne)

We don’t just owe it to ourselves, we don’t just owe it to our families. We owe it to all those who came before us and, through hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and toil made this nation a beacon of hope for the whole world. We owe it to the men who fought for that hope, we owe it to those who risked and sacrificed to settle and build this land of the free. We owe it to those men and women whose names have never and will never be written on earthly pages.

Please allow me a minute to barely scratch the surface in their memory:

We owe it to the mothers who last goodbye to their boys came at the train station to boot camp. We owe it to the children who only see their father in memorialized photographs through blurry & teary vision. We owe it to the young lad whose final moment was fighting beside the slain body of his father on that hill north of Boston. We owe it to those families whose last minutes came upon the wreckage of a ship that never reached the new world, and whose final shouts of I love you were drowned out by the fearful Atlantic. We owe it to the gut-wrenching gasp of a widow who while not knowing of her lover's fate answered a knock at her door to receive that worst news found in a pressed uniform and the countenance of a stoic face. We owe it to the bloody goodbye letters whose final words of dearest love never made it back. We owe it to those who fought through mortal wound, for the love of their embattled brothers far surpassed the fear of their coming death. We owe it to those whose first freedom came with dogs chasing and with loved ones left behind. We owe it to those sold away from family, friend and lover, never to even hear of them again. We owe it to all those who bore the vast injustices of a union working to realize a more perfect liberty and justice for all. There isn't enough time in a thousand years to properly tell the stories of what it means to be the home of the brave. And that is ok, for our reverent homage to them isn’t in the telling of their tale but the furthering of what cost them so dearly. Our fealty to their giving is in our resolute and sober determination to see that their gift is continued and cherished beyond self.

We don't get to sit this one out and still hold our heads up high. We get to look destiny in the eye with courage or in shame be counted among the weak.  

We live in a time where niceties upon this topic have become the dead weight of the gluttonous accouterment of our good time’s splendor, which serves more as a re-drugging of our mighty will than a pleasant correction that might in time achieve a similar but more comforting result.

So toughen up. No matter where you are in life, these times demand more. I don’t care if you are already the tip of the spear and shaping the world, we need more from you. More bravery, more courage, more truth-telling, more insight, more risk. More. There isn’t even one who will be able to play his or her part without an intentional dedication to more, without the understanding that IT IS UP TO US. These times demand that we participate and stop waiting for some knight in shining armor to do it for us. These times demand more. These times demand that we take a stand.

But how? How do we take a stand?

First, with fidelity, show up. With loving conviction, be vocal about your stand. With grace, forgive those who oppose you, for forgiveness not only holds ground but takes it. With honor, refuse intimidation. With courage, simply say no more. With mercy, befriend your supposed enemy. It’s ok to fail; give it another go, and another, try again, and again. Let the words of Winnie echo, Never Never Quit. 

REMEMBER: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” This is true because freedom always wins; by the short of it, or by long, by word, or by blood. This is evident because every latter century is a better place to live than the former. This is due to the fact that beyond the seemingly immeasurable stupidity of people, is the reality that we learn from those stupid mistakes and in turn make better decisions. The truth is that people make more good decisions than bad ones, at least 51% of the time. If this were not so, instead of evolving to where we are today, we would have ages ago plunged into extinction.

Not another inch. Not one more cancellation. Not another high-tech lynching or book burning. Not one more banning. No more rewriting of our civil rights. Not without consequence. It is time for freedom to be immovable again. It is time for foolishness to bare its own name. It is time for human liberty to hold fast. It is time for good men and women to stand up. It is time to have the strength of will that we have long looked up to in our favorite books, stories & movies. No one will do it for us. It doesn't even work that way.

It has to be us. Always has been, ever will be.

Who will be strong and stand with me?

Hold Tension, Be Vast.

Remember, restoration alone brings victory.